Production procedures nowadays often involve a requirement of applying decoration to an article, for example for information or aesthetic purposes. Such a decoration may be applied by the use of an embossing foil which initially carries the decoration and from which the decoration is transferred on to the appropriate surface of the article. However, difficulties may be encountered in regard to applying a decoration from an embossing foil to a conical or tapering surface of an article. In a method of decorating an article having a conical surface, and in an apparatus for carrying out that method, as is to be found in German published specification (DE-AS) No. 27 21 980, the embossing foil which is provided with a plurality of decorations thereon in succession is unwound from a supply roll and passed to an embossing station for receiving a respective article to be decorated. In the embossing station the decoration is transferred from the embossing foil on to the conical or tapering surface of the article to be decorated. The embossing foil is deflected around a deflection roller which is disposed at a displacement arrangement, upstream of the embossing station, as considered in the direction of forward feed movement of the embossing foil towards the embossing station. The deflection roller, together with the embossing foil supply roll, by means of the displacement arrangement, is caused to perform a movement which is directed parallel to the axis of the embossing roller in the embossing station, and at the same time a pivotal movement about a pivot axis which is normal to the longitudinal axis of the embossing roller. That procedure is concerned with applying decoration by means of an embossing foil to an article which is for example a television casing, on a surface thereof which is in the general configuration of a truncated pyramid. In order to apply the operating procedure to that specific purpose, the supply roll is displaceable axially and substantially parallel to the embossing roller of the embossing station. Between the supply roll and the embossing roller, before being applied to the appropriate surface of the article to be decorated, the embossing foil is passed over a roller which is displaceable substantially parallel to itself, for tensioning of the embossing foil, and mounted rotatably about a transverse axis extending normal to the surface to be decorated. As, in the case of an article in the form of a truncated pyramid, the surface to be decorated comprises a plurality of at least substantially flat surface portions, the deflection roller around which the embossing foil passes can be in the form of what is known as a dancer roller, that is to say a roller which is mounted to be freely movable, and which is automatically adapted with a stepwise action to the respective parameters governed by the embossing foil and the respective surface portion of the article to be decorated. The dancer roller is movable with the supply roll for the embossing foil, in that arrangement.
However the situation is different when dealing with an article having a conical surface in the form of a truncated cone. Such articles may be for example cans, pots or the like.